Guardiola Optimistic Despite Challenges Ahead of Juventus Clash

Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola appreciated having an additional day to prepare for their midweek European Champions League clash at Juventus and noted it would allow his depleted squad a chance to recover from Saturday’s league encounter against Crystal Palace.

City were held 2-2 at Selhurst Park in the latest setback to their title aspirations, with Guardiola’s team missing several key members due to sickness and injuries, including Rodri, Mateo Kovacic, John Stones, and Phil Foden.

Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake were the most recent to join City’s roster of unavailable players, both ruled out after injuries sustained in their 3-0 victory over Nottingham Forest last week.

“My staff have started analyzing (Juventus), and luckily we don’t play on Tuesday; we play on Wednesday, which gives us an extra day to help these players recover because we lack alternatives,” the Spaniard told journalists.

Guardiola stated medical personnel are working diligently to get the players back to fitness but emphasized that the team must accept injuries as an inherent part of the sport.

“Don’t feel pity; embrace the challenge, and perhaps at the end, we will take more pride in how we handled ourselves compared to other seasons when we won trophies,” he remarked.

City suffered a 4-1 defeat to Sporting and played to a 3-3 draw with Feyenoord in their previous two Champions League outings.